Tightrope
|runtime = 115 minutes |rating = |language = English |gross = $48,143,579 (USA) }}Tightrope is a 1984 American suspense thriller starring and produced by Clint Eastwood & directed by Richard Tuggle (in his directorial debut). Clint Eastwood's daughter, Alison also stars in the movie as the daughter of his character. The film is known for having a significant amount of red tint photography. The red color connects with the movie's adult sexual scenes and references to the red light district's prostitutes & seedy sex. Plot The movie begins with a young woman walking home from her birthday party and is stalked by a man in distinctive sneakers. After dropping one of her presents, a police officer offers to escort her to her front door. The camera reveals that the policeman is wearing the same sneakers as the stalker. The next day, divorced New Orleans police detective Wes Block (is throwing a football with his daughters Penny & Amanda and as they gets ready to go to a Saints game, Block is summoned to a crime scene, forcing him to break his plans with his daughters. The young woman (who was shown at the beginning of the film) has been strangled in her bed, but her killer left no fingerprints, but waited in her apartment until midnight to kill her and even made himself coffee. Block visits a brothel where the woman worked at and he interviews a prostitute with whom she would perform group sex. The prostitute seduces Block, loosening his necktie, which he accidentally leaves behind. The murderer rapes his victims and has been leaving behind a great deal of forensic evidence, including a residue of glass fragments and barley. Beryl Thibodeaux, who runs a rape prevention program, advises Block on the case. The second murder victim is also a sex worker and is found strangled in a jacuzzi. Block tracks down one of her co-workers and interviews her while the two prepare to have sex. He handcuffs the woman to the bed. While Block inquires about the victims at another brothel, he has sex with a prostitute. The hidden killer watches Block and the prostitute. The next morning, Block is called to the scene of a third victim. He is shocked to realize that it is the prostitute he had been with the night before. Under the guise of working on the case, Block flirts with Thibodeaux, and the two spend the rest of the day together. The killer taunts Block by sending a doll with a note which directs him to another brothel. Once there, a dominatrix informs Block that an unknown man hired her to be whipped by Block and she is supposed to send him. to a gay bar. At the bar, Block meets up with a man who has been hired by the killer to have sex with Block. He instructs the man to pick up his pay as scheduled and follows him, hoping to catch the killer, but Block is too late and the man is killed. The killer kidnaps the friend of the third victim and dumps her body in a public fountain. He also drapes Block's abandoned necktie on a nearby statue. Block and Beryl go out on a second date, escorting his daughters while they are secretly observed by the killer disguised as a Mardi Gras participant. When they are in bed later, Block shies away from intimacy with Beryl and then has a nightmare that he attacks her in the guise of the killer. One of the victim's clothes has some cash in it which the police trace to the payroll of a brewery. The money has the same glass and barley residue on it that has been cropping up at all the crime scenes. When Block goes to the brewery to investigate, the killer watches him during his visit. That night, the killer breaks into Block's home, killing the nanny & some of Block's pets and also handcuffing & gagging Amanda. Block is nearly strangled in a struggle after he arrives and is only saved when one of his surviving dogs repeatedly bites the killer. He fires two shots at the killer as he escapes (and is later seen watching the police attending the scene from concealment). While going through news clippings, Block comes across the name of a cop: Leander Rolfe (Marco St. John), who was arrested for raping two girls. Further investigation reveals that Rolfe had been paroled and was working at the brewery. Block and his team stake out Rolfe's apartment, but Rolfe has gone to attack Beryl at her home (and successfully slays the cops guarding her). After realizing that Beryl is in danger, Block races to her home where he stops Rolfe's attempt to strangle her (despite being stabbed twice with scissors). Block chases Rolfe through a cemetery and into a rail yard. During their final scuffle, the two of them end up in the path of an oncoming train; Block manages to roll aside in time, but Rolfe is run over and killed. In the end, Block accepts a woman's touch after telling Beryl everything will be okay. Cast *Clint Eastwood as Detective Wes Block *Geneviève Bujold as Beryl Thibodeaux *Dan Hedaya as Detective Molinari *Alison Eastwood as Amanda Block *Jenny Beck as Penny Block *Rod Masterson as Patrolman Gallo *Marco St. John as Leander Rolfe Production Tightrope was filmed in New Orleans during the fall of 1983. According to producer Fritz Manes, he said the production wanted the film to reflect New Orleans on two levels, saying, "First of all, we wanted to capture then historic charm and tradition of the city. In addition, we wanted the jazzy, sultry quality''." The inspiration for the film was based on newspaper articles about a rapist in the Bay Area of San Francisco, California. Also, Richard Tuggle's story was developed out of his interest in the potential influences that may exist on law enforcement during police work. While Richard Tuggle retained the director's credit, Clint Eastwood directed most of the movie after he found Tuggle working too slowly on it. Susan Sarandon was offered the role of Beryl Thibideaux, but turned it down. According to an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Sarandon explaned she turned down the role because "the link between violence and sex was very strong. I met with Clint Eastwood and I said, 'Aren't you worried, especially you, who everybody thinks is like Man Personified, (that) when your character starts to do some of this stuff, that it's going to have a link between sex and violence and treating women badly?' And he said, 'I don't think that it's my job to worry about that, I'm an actor." Clint Eastwood's then-partner, Sondra Locke (who co-starred with Eastwood in his six previous films) was not cast as the lead female role in the film because reportedly, Warner Bros. studio execs told Eastwood that the public was tired of seeing movies of him teamed up with Locke and was told not to make any more films with her. Eastwood also faced criticism in the media for casting his daughter, Alison in the film (possibly due to the elements of the film's theme). Box office "Tightrope" opened at #1 at the box office, grossing $9,156,545 during its opening weekend (which is an average of $5,965 per theater). It would eventually grossed $48 million in the United States. 'Critical reception' ''Tightrope has an 82% freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes, out of 11 reviews. Roger Ebert praised the film for taking chances by exploring the idea of a hard-nosed cop learning to respect a woman. He cites the film as "a lot more ambitious than the [Harry (series)|''[Dirty Harry'' movies]]." Ebert's colleague, Gene Siskel also praised the film during Siskel & Ebert's on-air review of the film on At the Movies, crediting the performance of the villain, the relationship between Eastwood and Geneviève Bujold and Eastwood doing "a terrific job risking his star charisma playing a louse" and also "taking us inside to see what it's really like to abuse women." Janet Maslin concluded that the film "isn't quite top-level Eastwood, but it's close." David Denby compared Eastwood's directing style with that of "Don Siegel's tawdry, urban-anxiety mode, slowed by episodes of rapt erotic stillness" and stated that as actor he "also gave his most complex and forceful performance to date." External links *[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088272/ Tightrope] on IMDb *[https://www.allmovie.com/movie/v49952 Tightrope] at AllMovie *[https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/tightrope Tightrope] at Rotten Tomatoes Trailer Category:1984 films Category:1980s films Category:Clint Eastwood Category:American thriller films Category:Suspense films Category:Warner Bros. films Category:Rated R